sandbags/applying prolonged weight, anyone?

[Kami y]

HI,
I was just wondering...In yoga I've sometimes been taught to use sandbags to weigh down certain parts of the body, usually for a deeper stretch. For instance, if you're sitting down with the legs straight out to either side (a modified "splits") you can put a sandbag over the quads of each leg to fix them in a way that helps the rest of the leg muscles relax. Or, during the "butterfly" (another techical term), very stretchy people can place one sandbag over each knee to deepen the stretch, obviously with care and caution.

Does anyone know of similar applications of sandbags or extended weight in massage? I'm not even sure WHEN such a thing would be appropriate, but I wonder if it's used in some modality or other.

Thanks,
me

 

[hooba booba]

Sacred Stone http://www.sacredstonehealing.com use sandbags, not so much for stretching as for as for weighing down the legs so they really sink into the hip socket, a lot of their stone therapy is about weighing down (and the trainer is a yoga teacher)

A lot of the earlier versions of stone therapy eg LaStone http://www.lastonetherapy.com rely on gravity on the stones doing some of the work, sandbags are just a bigger version, easier to position and a common yoga prop. LaStone even have Castle Building where you just pile up the person with stones, incredibly grounding.

 

[dlc8675]

melb, those are very interesting referrals, thank you. I'd never heard of either of them.

does anyone else know of similar techniques using sandbags or another kind of prolonged weight?